Memories and Tributes

UW Medical Center

In the last issue of UW Medicine, we asked you for your memories of UW Medical Center. The hospital celebrated 50 years of compassion and discovery in May 2009. A number of people wrote in to share memories of the hospital, or to pay tribute to its work in patient care, research, and teaching. Here are their offerings.

Having basked in the reflected glory of UW Medical Center for 16 years as UW president, I send my thanks and best wishes.

βDr. William P. Gerberding, President, University of Washington (1979β1995)

Itβs been almost 11 years since my head injury, and today I am perfectly fine, thanks to an incredible team of doctors at UWMC. Dr. Silbergeld [Daniel Silbergeld, Res. β92], my neurosurgeon, is my hero.

I fell while snowboarding at Whistler on April 15, 1998, but didnβt go to the UWMC emergency room until May 16. I credit the doctors at UWMC for being so tuned in to my headache complaints, even when I said βnoβ the first time they asked me if I had fallen. Then, after the CT, I said, oh, yeah. I fell a month ago!

I had been bleeding into my brain for 30 days and had a subdural hematoma between my brain and skull β there was so much blood and pressure that my brain was pushed off center by several centimeters. Incredibly, I did not suffer any major brain damage thanks to immediate and skillful surgery.

I still snowboard, but with a helmet. And Iβm always telling skiers and snowboarders about my accident. Maybe after Natasha Richardsonβs tragic death, people will realize how important a helmet is β so, if you ski or snowboard...wear a helmet.

βSandra Gardner

As a cardiology fellow, I performed the first heart catheterization in the UW Hospital!

We have been patients of family medicine since 1978, and are grateful to Dr. Sharon Dobie
[Res. β89, family medicine], Dr. Bill Neighbor [M.D. β79, Res. β85, family medicine], Dr. Jonathan Drezner [Fel. β00, family medicine], and all the medical and administrative staff who have cared about and for us for so long. We are equally indebted to Dr. Feeney in otolaryngology, Dr. Brentnall [Teri Brentnall, M.D. β87], and Josephine at the DDC, Dr. Wang in dermatology, and Dr. Toop at the satellite eye clinic. Our special admiration goes to Pat Poulin, Irene, and Joy in community-based services, and to all the volunteers. But we received our greatest gift 24 years ago, when Dr. Tom Benedetti [M.D. β73, MHA β00], and Judy Wilson, coming off an eight-hour clinic shift, stayed with us for six more hours until our son was born.

βRoger, Penny, and Cameron Percy

Our 1959 class was the first class to graduate when UW Hospital opened in the spring of 1959. I was the first salaried medical intern on the service of Dr. Robert Williams. I worked up the second patient to be admitted, a young girl with lupus erythematosus.

βRoger E. Moe, M.D. β59, Res. β68, Emeritus Faculty

I want to thank all of the staff at the NICU for all their hard work and dedication to help our children. My son, Brian Naranjo, was a patient there six years ago, and thanks to all your hard work, he is here with us today. No words can express how grateful I am to have people like you guys.

βErika Reynoso

A remembrance of: Dr. James Haviland, for facilitating three years of biological research in the U.S. Navy, Drs. Robert Williams and Robert Petersdorf, for a great medical education; Drs. George Aagaard and John Hogness [Res. β51, internal medicine], for a great administrative medical education, and Dr. Julian Ansell, for a great urological surgery education.